This lift contains a mix of new parts and used components from Big Sky’s former Swift Current.The lift line is quite long with 28 towers and more than 13,000 feet of haul rope.The entire alignment is new with 12 new trails debuting alongside the lift.View riding up the middle part of the line.View back down.Towers from Big Sky with added catwalks, public address and comm line tensioners.View near the summit.Breakover towers 26, 27 and 28.Arriving at the return terminal near Bullwinkles.Unloading area and re-skinned UNI station.Upper station view.The top breakover.Side view of the upper terminal.Tower 22 has one of two new hold down tower heads.Tower 23 with combination assemblies from Big Sky.View up the line, most of which is not open to skiing.Middle section of the line.Another look up the line.Lower lift line with no ski under clearance.Lift overview just after opening day.View riding out of the base.Tower 8.These chairs not only spun at Big Sky and Sugarloaf but also Sundance, Utah for a period.Support tower 13.Nearing the summit with the line kept low for wind protection.Tower 22.View down from tower 25.Lower station with small maintenance facility.Doppelmayr Connect controls.Long lift line with 138 chairs.The top seen from Timberline.Side view of a support tower with a mix of new and used sheaves.
I didn’t realize until it went in that this lift is nearly as big as SuperQuad. Longer and taller than anything at Someday Bigger. Never expected Sugarloaf to cut a substantial amount of new lift-served terrain in my lifetime, even if it’ll mostly be new real-estate access. I’m just happy the Loaf finally has a “boot up at your car, ski down to the lift” lot with this installation.
Oops, I also meant to say: some Sugarloafers had a real complex about being Boyne’s forgotten child and getting leftovers (or, in the 2010s, only getting new infrastructure if the old stuff fails catastrophically). I haven’t ridden this yet, but between this and Loon’s refurbished HSQ, it seems to me that the way Dopp/Boyne are refurbishing these lifts makes them indistinguishable from a new build to all except those who work on them for a living.
The only real giveaways that this is an old lift are the designs of the lifting frames on the towers, as Doppelmayr towers on newer high speed quads and six packs have the sheaves mounted below the crossarms on support towers.
Along with the lifting frames being a bit narrower on Spacejet detachables.
And with the terminals, it’s almost impossible to tell that these are Spacejet terminals with a custom skin because the DT-104 grip was one of two grip options for UNI-Gs up through at least 2018. The only real giveaway is that at the terminals, the chairs don’t have any straight section in the turnarounds (though that’s not much since early UNI-Gs like Birds of Prey and Morrisey are like this) and do a continuous 180 degree turn like is present on D-Line lifts.
The fastest they will run Bucksaw will be 4.5 meters per second, or 885 fpm. According to Sugarloaf lift maintenance the only circumstance where they will ever run it above 4.5 mps is when they are either trying to get certain chairs up / down faster, or if its an emergency. I have a video of Bucksaw running at 4.5 mps, and I think I’m the only person (so far) to film it running that fast. It also doesn’t help that most of Bucksaw was built in 1996, so I’m guessing that putting stress on an already aging machine does not help much.
I didn’t realize how old the lift actually is. The refurbishment is really impressive. I’ve ridden it a few times now and looking at pictures of what is used to be at Big Sky, it’s hard to believe that it used to be the Swift Current. The load gates, the loading carpet, the control buildings, the garage, the control panel, all of it makes it feel like a new lift. They even put new covers on the chairs for the 24/25 season (see Sugarloaf, ME: Bucksaw Express from Twin Skiing, Lifts, & Rides). Short of actually being a brand new lift, it’s all pretty impressive.
I just desperately prey and hope they do the same for the Timberline replacement. It has been confirmed as the old Six Shooter and those terminals are absolutely hideous. They did such a great job on Bucksaw, and it would be so cool to see them do it again with Timberline. Also, I know its basically impossible but bubbles?? That line could really use them…
I think this lift is a great upgrade and should take a lot of relief of the other two HSQ’s during peak times.
As for as what’s next for Sugarloaf, I could see SuperQuad being upgraded to a bubble eight-pack (Name TBD), Timberline being upgraded to a bubble six-pack, and double runner being upgraded to one fixed grip or high speed quad.
As much as I want to see Sugarloaf get a bubble 8-pack that most likely not happen. I think in the future Boyne would probably would install a 6-person bubble chair where the SuperQuad is now, but there is no guarantee that will happen anytime soon. It’s already been confirmed that Six-Shooter fro Big Sky will replace the Timblerline Quad in 2025, and that lift will not have bubbles. If anywhere however, bubbles would certainly be more appreciated here than anywhere else.
Of course, nobody really expected the Kanc or Jordan replacements to be eight packs, so who knows! I do think Double Runner will be next after Timberline. That’s another candidate for a refurbished HSQ if they want to keep giving them hand-me-downs….
The old Kanc quad was re-installed as the Seven Brothers lift at Loon, and the old Jordan Bowl Express quad is going to Pleasant Mountain in Maine. Hand-me-down High Speed lifts are harder to find than you’d think, and not only that – Boyne tends to only re-purpose older lift for their resorts only.
It is essentially new. As far as I know, all that’s left of Swifty are towers, chairs, and line equipment, plus the frames of the terminals. I do not know whether or not they kept the motor, APU, and tire banks.
Comlines are always tensioned; Peter’s referring to a relatively new approach Doppelmayr has taken to installing them. The large loops seen on the tower are part of that system. Not sure how it works as we don’t have any ourselves.
it is extremely windy at Sugarloaf and the west side gets the worst of it so it would make sense also there are a lot of rocks on it so it would need a lot of snow to be skiable much like the steep section of super quad liftline
While this expansion was definitely a net gain for Sugarloaf, I can’t help but feel like it doesn’t do the greatest job at some of the things it was intended to do. As I understand it, this area was meant to draw families, upper-level novice and intermediate skiers, and lesson groups away from Whiffletree and toward an area that was supposedly better-suited for them. Thus, most of the terrain parks have been moved from Superquad to Whiffletree to create a more park-centric terrain pod that would be easier to lap. The problem is that the demographic groups I mentioned above still prefer to use Whiffletree over Bucksaw Express because of its close proximity to the base lodge and the other beginner lifts. Now that the terrain park users are also using Whiffletree, it results in long lines there while Bucksaw seems to barely has a wait even on weekends. The root cause of this is that Bucksaw is not very convenient to access from the main base, requiring a ride up the Superquad which is and will always be the most crowded lift on the mountain, not to mention a bit intimidating for novice skiers as it’s mainly an upper intermediate to expert lift.
What this expansion did succeed in doing is adding a great assortment of long, mellow, wide-open cruisers which are seldom crowded, as well as a lift that you can access by skiing down from some of the parking lots.
I agree with your point about Bucksaw being hard to get to. I was there at a time Super quad was on Mechanical hold earlier this season. To get to Bucksaw from the base area, one would have to ride DRC/Whiffletree then up Skyline and then ski tote or timberline down to bullwinkles. The terrain and views are amazing. I grew up a sugarloafer and love what they have done here, the terrain is great, but getting to it is a problem. This location also eliminates the slogan of “no matter where you are, you can make it back to the base area” There needs to be an easier access route from the base area to Bucksaw base. The following day was a wind day, Bucksaw, DRC, Snubber, Sawduster, Skidway opened. But there was no way to access Bucksaw unless shuttle or hiking, Not ideal for the targeted demographic.
Im not sure what a possible solution could be if it’s even an issue yet given how new the development is. The way that the base area is constructed leaves limited space for an egress to the west side of the village (super quad side). Im also not sure if there is enough vertical if any for an egress from birches below the chapel over towards Bucksaw.
I haven’t skied here before but looking at the old map and google maps, didn’t the old bucksaw start right out next to the base near superquad. could they not just make a new egress lift that starts in that same location?
The base of the old Bucksaw double is surrounded by a condo development known as “The Timbers” Those where built up in the later 2000s early 2010’s. Between the old bucksaw double and super quad is the bulk of mountain operations, admin offices, maintenance shops and snowmaking HQ.
They can still do that, but there’s not much incentive to do so, as getting to Bucksaw is not to too difficult now. It would certainly help to relieve the SuperQuad at times though.
Most of these issues would be resolved if they could build a connector trail from the base of the Superquad to the base of Bucksaw (Bucksaw is ~250 vertical feet below Superquad). Unfortunately, I think there’s too much development between the two, but I believe the topography would support a gradual trail that would allow “ski-down” access from the base area to Bucksaw.
Lift Blog 
Video:
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I didn’t realize until it went in that this lift is nearly as big as SuperQuad. Longer and taller than anything at Someday Bigger. Never expected Sugarloaf to cut a substantial amount of new lift-served terrain in my lifetime, even if it’ll mostly be new real-estate access. I’m just happy the Loaf finally has a “boot up at your car, ski down to the lift” lot with this installation.
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Oops, I also meant to say: some Sugarloafers had a real complex about being Boyne’s forgotten child and getting leftovers (or, in the 2010s, only getting new infrastructure if the old stuff fails catastrophically). I haven’t ridden this yet, but between this and Loon’s refurbished HSQ, it seems to me that the way Dopp/Boyne are refurbishing these lifts makes them indistinguishable from a new build to all except those who work on them for a living.
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The only real giveaways that this is an old lift are the designs of the lifting frames on the towers, as Doppelmayr towers on newer high speed quads and six packs have the sheaves mounted below the crossarms on support towers.
Along with the lifting frames being a bit narrower on Spacejet detachables.
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Right. But to 99% of skiers this is an entirely new lift.
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And with the terminals, it’s almost impossible to tell that these are Spacejet terminals with a custom skin because the DT-104 grip was one of two grip options for UNI-Gs up through at least 2018. The only real giveaway is that at the terminals, the chairs don’t have any straight section in the turnarounds (though that’s not much since early UNI-Gs like Birds of Prey and Morrisey are like this) and do a continuous 180 degree turn like is present on D-Line lifts.
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do you think they’ll ever work to get it to run faster than the 800 or so it runs at now?
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The fastest they will run Bucksaw will be 4.5 meters per second, or 885 fpm. According to Sugarloaf lift maintenance the only circumstance where they will ever run it above 4.5 mps is when they are either trying to get certain chairs up / down faster, or if its an emergency. I have a video of Bucksaw running at 4.5 mps, and I think I’m the only person (so far) to film it running that fast. It also doesn’t help that most of Bucksaw was built in 1996, so I’m guessing that putting stress on an already aging machine does not help much.
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I didn’t realize how old the lift actually is. The refurbishment is really impressive. I’ve ridden it a few times now and looking at pictures of what is used to be at Big Sky, it’s hard to believe that it used to be the Swift Current. The load gates, the loading carpet, the control buildings, the garage, the control panel, all of it makes it feel like a new lift. They even put new covers on the chairs for the 24/25 season (see Sugarloaf, ME: Bucksaw Express from Twin Skiing, Lifts, & Rides). Short of actually being a brand new lift, it’s all pretty impressive.
I just desperately prey and hope they do the same for the Timberline replacement. It has been confirmed as the old Six Shooter and those terminals are absolutely hideous. They did such a great job on Bucksaw, and it would be so cool to see them do it again with Timberline. Also, I know its basically impossible but bubbles?? That line could really use them…
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HOW DARE YOU INSULT THE GLORIOUS STEALTH TERMINALS!!!!!!!!!! SPACESHIP GOOD
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Stealth III terminals are awesome though!
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I think this lift is a great upgrade and should take a lot of relief of the other two HSQ’s during peak times.
As for as what’s next for Sugarloaf, I could see SuperQuad being upgraded to a bubble eight-pack (Name TBD), Timberline being upgraded to a bubble six-pack, and double runner being upgraded to one fixed grip or high speed quad.
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As much as I want to see Sugarloaf get a bubble 8-pack that most likely not happen. I think in the future Boyne would probably would install a 6-person bubble chair where the SuperQuad is now, but there is no guarantee that will happen anytime soon. It’s already been confirmed that Six-Shooter fro Big Sky will replace the Timblerline Quad in 2025, and that lift will not have bubbles. If anywhere however, bubbles would certainly be more appreciated here than anywhere else.
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Of course, nobody really expected the Kanc or Jordan replacements to be eight packs, so who knows! I do think Double Runner will be next after Timberline. That’s another candidate for a refurbished HSQ if they want to keep giving them hand-me-downs….
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The old Kanc quad was re-installed as the Seven Brothers lift at Loon, and the old Jordan Bowl Express quad is going to Pleasant Mountain in Maine. Hand-me-down High Speed lifts are harder to find than you’d think, and not only that – Boyne tends to only re-purpose older lift for their resorts only.
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That’s what I was thinking – another Boyne hand-me-down. But it should probably be new one for that….
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It is essentially new. As far as I know, all that’s left of Swifty are towers, chairs, and line equipment, plus the frames of the terminals. I do not know whether or not they kept the motor, APU, and tire banks.
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I would guess they kept the terminal insides, especially APU and tire banks, it’s not that old.
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I wonder why the lift line isn’t open for skiing. Is there too little clearance because the towers are lower than the trees for wind reasons?
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the lower part of the line is open or skiing now and if you look on the map it is titled pualaski
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I gleefully stand corrected!
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Why is the comm line tensioned? Is this to prevent it being struck by passing chairs in high winds?
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Comlines are always tensioned; Peter’s referring to a relatively new approach Doppelmayr has taken to installing them. The large loops seen on the tower are part of that system. Not sure how it works as we don’t have any ourselves.
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it is extremely windy at Sugarloaf and the west side gets the worst of it so it would make sense also there are a lot of rocks on it so it would need a lot of snow to be skiable much like the steep section of super quad liftline
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While this expansion was definitely a net gain for Sugarloaf, I can’t help but feel like it doesn’t do the greatest job at some of the things it was intended to do. As I understand it, this area was meant to draw families, upper-level novice and intermediate skiers, and lesson groups away from Whiffletree and toward an area that was supposedly better-suited for them. Thus, most of the terrain parks have been moved from Superquad to Whiffletree to create a more park-centric terrain pod that would be easier to lap. The problem is that the demographic groups I mentioned above still prefer to use Whiffletree over Bucksaw Express because of its close proximity to the base lodge and the other beginner lifts. Now that the terrain park users are also using Whiffletree, it results in long lines there while Bucksaw seems to barely has a wait even on weekends. The root cause of this is that Bucksaw is not very convenient to access from the main base, requiring a ride up the Superquad which is and will always be the most crowded lift on the mountain, not to mention a bit intimidating for novice skiers as it’s mainly an upper intermediate to expert lift.
What this expansion did succeed in doing is adding a great assortment of long, mellow, wide-open cruisers which are seldom crowded, as well as a lift that you can access by skiing down from some of the parking lots.
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I agree with your point about Bucksaw being hard to get to. I was there at a time Super quad was on Mechanical hold earlier this season. To get to Bucksaw from the base area, one would have to ride DRC/Whiffletree then up Skyline and then ski tote or timberline down to bullwinkles. The terrain and views are amazing. I grew up a sugarloafer and love what they have done here, the terrain is great, but getting to it is a problem. This location also eliminates the slogan of “no matter where you are, you can make it back to the base area” There needs to be an easier access route from the base area to Bucksaw base. The following day was a wind day, Bucksaw, DRC, Snubber, Sawduster, Skidway opened. But there was no way to access Bucksaw unless shuttle or hiking, Not ideal for the targeted demographic.
Im not sure what a possible solution could be if it’s even an issue yet given how new the development is. The way that the base area is constructed leaves limited space for an egress to the west side of the village (super quad side). Im also not sure if there is enough vertical if any for an egress from birches below the chapel over towards Bucksaw.
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I haven’t skied here before but looking at the old map and google maps, didn’t the old bucksaw start right out next to the base near superquad. could they not just make a new egress lift that starts in that same location?
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The base of the old Bucksaw double is surrounded by a condo development known as “The Timbers” Those where built up in the later 2000s early 2010’s. Between the old bucksaw double and super quad is the bulk of mountain operations, admin offices, maintenance shops and snowmaking HQ.
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They can still do that, but there’s not much incentive to do so, as getting to Bucksaw is not to too difficult now. It would certainly help to relieve the SuperQuad at times though.
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Most of these issues would be resolved if they could build a connector trail from the base of the Superquad to the base of Bucksaw (Bucksaw is ~250 vertical feet below Superquad). Unfortunately, I think there’s too much development between the two, but I believe the topography would support a gradual trail that would allow “ski-down” access from the base area to Bucksaw.
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